Archive for the ‘Free Speech’ Category
Steve Bell Sacked by the Guardian over Drawing of Netanyahu.
I have not found Bell that funny or acute for a long time (prefer Martin Rowson’s political cartoons), but the Tendance defends his right to be unfunny to the death.
This move is outrageous. It is wrong in so many ways, starting with the attack on the freedom for satire to exist.
The cartoon, featuring Netanyahu operating on his own stomach, showed a cut in the outline of the Gaza Strip.
Bell said the cartoon was spiked after a phone call from the paper suggested it may reference Shakespeare’s Shylock’s “pound of flesh” line.
He said it was inspired by a 60s cartoon of President Lyndon B Johnson.
Writing on X, Bell said he submitted the image earlier this month and “four hours later… I received an ominous phone call from the desk with the strangely cryptic message ‘pound of flesh’…”
Bell said he responded: “I’m sorry, I don’t understand,” and the reply from the desk was: “Jewish bloke; pound of flesh; antisemitic trope.”
Moneylender Shylock, from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, is considered to be one of the most notorious Jewish stereotypes in English literature due to his greedy nature.
In the Bard’s famous play, Shylock asks for a pound of Antonio’s flesh if a loan isn’t repaid within three months.
Bell told the BBC that the interpretation by the Guardian “made no sense to me, as there is no reference to that play in my cartoon, which shows Netanyahu, poised to perform a surgical operation on himself while wearing boxing gloves, the catastrophic consequences of which are yet to be seen.
“The image itself was inspired by the late, great David Levine’s cartoon of President Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) showing off his operation scar, which Levine draws in the shape of a map of Vietnam.”
A GNM (Guardian News and Media) spokesperson says: “The decision has been made not to renew Steve Bell’s contract. Steve Bell’s cartoons have been an important part of the Guardian over the past 40 years – we thank him and wish him all the best.”
The issue has arisen during a time of heightened tension following the Hamas attacks on Israel earlier this month and the subsequent retaliatory strikes on Gaza.
It is not the first time Bell has been accused of using antisemitic imagery.
A 2020 drawing featuring Sir Keir Starmer holding Jeremy Corbyn’s head on a plate was interpreted by some as a reference to the head of John the Baptist, which was presented to Salome, the daughter of the Jewish King Herod.
In the same year, senior Conservative MP Sajid Javid tweeted that Bell’s cartoon – depicting former Home Secretary Priti Patel and ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson as bulls with rings through their noses – was “incredibly offensive”.
Mr Javid said it was “reminiscent of antisemitic cartoons from the last century,” adding the Guardian “should know better”.
The Guardian also apologised earlier this year after a cartoon depicting BBC chairman Richard Sharp was criticised as antisemitic.
Martin Rowson, the artist who drew it, also apologised.
This reaction does not help:
Note: Comrade Martin Rowson does the much appreciated covers of Chartist magazine.
Laurence Fox, right wing Confusionist, arrested.
Laurence Fox, one time author at Spiked on Line (The fall of Britain 2020), is short of defenders these days,. Brendan O’Neill recently wrote, after the latest scanda,) “Yes, Foxâs comments were loathsome â but so is the hypocrisy of these privileged virtue-signallers who spend their days siding with bepenised people against women and then think they can get on their high horse over a sexist jibe on a news channel. Get real, fellas.”
Today we hear, Laurence Fox arrested over Ulez camera damage threat.
And, “Laurence Fox arrested over remarks on Ulez cameras as GB News sacks him.“
After the arrest, the broadcaster GB News, which last week suspended Fox after he made misogynistic remarks about the political journalist Ava Evans while on the Dan Wootton Tonight show, said it had âended its employment relationshipâ with him.
In a statement, the broadcaster said its working relationship with the regular presenter Calvin Robinson, who had issued a statement expressing solidarity with Wootton, was also over. The internal investigation into Wootton, who was also suspended, was continuing, it said.
Fox’s the Reclaim Party has been called, a right-wing populist party, “Who are the Reclaim Party and what do they stand for? Conservative councillor Anthony Allen defects to Laurence Foxâs populist âanti-wokeâ collective ahead of North Shropshire by-election.”
They say, “The Conservatives are no longer conservative or governing for all. The Labour Party is not fit to be in Opposition. We need a new way of doing things.
Reclaim intends to change freedom of speech laws and to depoliticise the police and other public institutions.
Reclaim stands for patriotism and believes hard work should be rewarded. We believe in protecting our borders, supporting forgotten working class communities and, above all, true equality for all Britons – rather than dividing us into narrow, protected groups.
We will field candidates at the next General Election â both to directly take seats and to actively target and unseat MPs whoâve sold Britain down the river.
“In June 2023, Reclaim Party leader Laurence Fox announced his intention to contest the 2023 Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election.[31] Fox received 2.3% of the vote, finishing fourth and losing his deposit, being beaten by Conservative candidate Steve Tuckwell.[32]“
For us political sociologists and historians of confusionism, Foxy is a extreme example of a ‘party leader’ who’s built his little empire on a murky mixture of prejudice, unwitty anti-woke themes, and the culture of narcissism. He shows how the way the Right in the epoch of social media is, at least in the UK, not far from the days when Spode was swanking about with the Black-shorts in footer bags Have you ever in your puff see such another perfect perisher?
Grayzone joins ranks of Russell Brand apologists.
It’s now a full set of Conspiracist apologists for Brand.
Well nearly, we await David Icke and Piers Corbyn…
For those not familiar with the alt-facts site, Grayzone, its chief Max Blumenthal and his minion Kitty Klarenberg, Al Jazeera recently stated,”it has been accused of spreading misinformation and Chinese and Russian government propaganda, including debunked claims about the conflict in Ukraine and whitewashed accounts of Beijingâs repression of ethnic minority Muslims in far-western Xinjian.”
Wikipedia says, “The Russian fake news website Peace Data has republished articles by The Grayzone in order to build a reputation as a progressive and anti-Western media source and to attract contributors.[61] False claims published by The Grayzone are referenced by many Twitter users who back Assad and the Russian government.[38]
Tendance Coatesy 